Weather, Smart Boards & Giveaway

I wanted to title this post "Smart Board Giveaway" but didn't want to get your hopes up. We realize that we've been a little bit MIA lately, but it's been a crazy few weeks. After conferences we've been trying to get back in the swing of things, and trying to get ready for spring break at the same time. So we apologize, but promise to be back in full swing after Spring Break. We've got lots in the works, so make sure to stay tuned!

This last week we've begun our weather science unit with our firsties. This is such a fun topic for our kids, and with the crazy weather that we've had, it fits right in. We will have much more later, but here is a little reminder of some weather freebies we did last year.

Cloud Activity
Evaporation Lab
Rainbow Fact Families
Weather Vocab
Weather ABC Sort
Most of these are from our very first week on our blog, and it's so fun to see how our work has grown! :)




Onto our HUGE news that we received on Friday. Our PTC (parent teacher club) recently decided that they would be purchasing 4 Smart Boards for classrooms in our school. Rather than pick recipients randomly, anyone interested submitted a little "application" of why you wanted one, and what you would do with it. The big news... BOTH of us were chosen to get Smart Boards, something we've been seriously coveting, and pushing for. They will be purchased this spring, and we be installed this summer. Yayyyyy!! We are beyond excited for the new challenge of using this tool in our classrooms. Our district has also adopted new reading and math curriculum, both from McGraw-Hill and both with INCREDIBLE websites. We can't wait to dig right in! So, that's where you come in. We'd love any tips or advice about our Smart Boards, or anything that might help us out. So, leave us a comment with anything we need or should know, and we will pick 3 lucky winners to pick anything from our TpT Store. So don't forget to leave your comment by Saturday at 8:00pm pst, and we will announce the winners on Sunday. Have a great week!

HUGE Back To School Giveaway!!!

It's so close we can smell it! Alarm clocks, pencils and crayons, teacher voices... the time to go back to school. But before we do, we're going to have a little fun with our blogger friends! We've got some great things planned for the last two weeks of our summer. Starting Tuesday, we begin our 14 Days of Summer! We'll be sharing at least one freebie everyday, and we've teamed up with some great bloggers to help up out!

Before we begin, we'd like to kick off our last two weeks of summer with a FAB-U-LOUS Back to School Giveaway! The winner will get our back to school items in our TpT store for free! Here's what you'll win:

Pocket Chart Calendar Cards
Pocket Chart Daily Schedule Cards
All About the Alphabet
All About Numbers
Word Wall Words
First Grade Math Assessment
Reading Strategies Poster Pack
Apples, Apples Everywhere
September Math Journal Prompts
and our new Math Journal Buddy

All that for just being our blogger friend!

So from now until Saturday, enter to win and we'll post a winner (or two...) Saturday night, August 13th. Here's how to enter:
1. Follow our blog, and leave a comment
2. Follow our TpT Store, and leave a comment
3. Blog about our 14 days of Summer, and leave a link
4. Blog about our giveaway, and leave a link

So there you go. Four ways to enter! Good luck! And make sure to watch tomorrow for our first freebie!

THE GIVEAWAY IS NOW CLOSED STAY TUNED TOMORROW, AUGUST 14th , FOR OUR WINNERS!

We Made It To 400 Followers! Giveaway & Freebie Time!

Thank you followers! We are so excited to have reached 400! Now about our giveaway and freebies! We are going to give 4 followers 1 item from our TpT store for FREE! And the winners will get to choose their free item! There are 4 ways you can enter this fantastic giveaway:

1. Follow our blog (1 entry)

2. Follow our Teachers pay Teachers store (1 entry)

3. Blog about us on your blog and add the link in your comment (1 entry)

4. Comment on an item you have purchased

from our TpT store or would like to purchase (1 entry)

We will choose our winners Monday, July 18th so comment away!

Now for the freebies! Below are pictures of the items we would like to thank you with! Just click on the words above the pictures and start downloading! Thank you all for your support! Sorry this was so late. Google docs wouldn't take one of our uploads (too big) so we uploaded it to our TpT store.

This is a great game/center activity for the beginning of the school year:

Here is a great management tool for you all!


Every morning kiddos come in and find their card on the home side, and flip it to school. It’s a visual way to do attendance that is quick and easy. The cards are made of 3 x 5 stock, and I put a home label on the bottom of one side, and a school label on the bottom of the other side. Above the school label I put each child’s picture, so when they are at school you can actually see their face. I use the Carson Dellosa pocket chart which is 30 x 37 ½. But I like to make my own cards so they are personalized every year. The labels are formatted to Avery label 5395 (or equivalent size). So here are the labels that I use for my pocket chart. I've uploaded them in a word file so all you have to do is change the names to fit your class and you are ready to go. We hope you find this useful!
Attendance Card Labels

We need your help... and Ice Cream Winner!

Ok blogger friends, we really need your help. We feel like we are pretty technologically savvy here at First Grade Fanatics. We are definitely a pair of Mac girls, and love learning how we go. That said, there is one little old thing that we can NOT figure out how to do. When we have a giveway, and pick a winner, we'd like to post the picture of the Random Number Generator, like everyone else does. But we can't figure out how to copy and paste it into a document to then post. When we copy and paste it, all we get are the numbers and text, not the picture of the results. Any ideas? Are we using the wrong website? We don't think it's a Mac vs PC thing, because we got the same results on a PC. We would sure LOVE someone to help us out... So the first person to either comment or email us when directions so that we can use the picture will win our Summer Fun Activity Pack as a thank you. We would sure appreciate it!

But now, the winner of our Ice Cream Math Pack.

Congratulations Cindy!! We will email you your copy shortly. If you would like to check out our Ice Cream Timed Tests, head on over to TpT. Have a great Monday!

Ice Cream Math Pack

Hello friends! We know that we've been pretty quiet lately, but don't you worry! We're still here. We've just been super busy hangin' with our kiddos, taking vacations (3 weeks in the sun in South Carolina did my tan some good!), and trying to enjoy our summer. We've got a big to do list though, so we've started to check some things off...

This past year, we really put an emphasis on our kids being proficient at their math facts. Our district previously had a high emphasis on the process that kids go through in math, but not so big on memorizing math facts. Now the pendulum has sort of swung, and we're now putting a HUGE focus on getting them to have their math facts memorized. We know that this will help them as they get older, and with math in the upper grades. We do believe of course that their is a balance, between understanding math concepts and the process, and memorization. Anyway, we started doing timed minute tests in our classes, and although we were resistant at first about having such pressure on the kids, we could not believe the results at the end of the year! The kids were doing SOO much better actually knowing their addition facts, and not having to actually figure them out. We gave our students a 1 minute timed test, and gave worksheets with 20-40 problems on the page. This year, we will be starting this much sooner, and one of the things that we will do is track each child's progress on a bulletin board, so they can see how they are doing. Then periodically we'll have an ice cream treat to celebrate their progress. We've been looking for a timed test pack, but just haven't been happy with what we've found, so naturally we had to create our own. So, introducing our
Ice Cream Math Timed Test Pack!
Inside you will find:
*Ice Cream Scoops bulletin board
*Teacher Record Sheets
*Addition Worksheets for adding 0,1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10
(4 unique sheets per number)
*Awards for each level passed

We're still working on mini packs including worksheets with 45 problems, subtraction worksheets, and mixed number worksheets for addition and subtraction. We'll let ya'll know when they're finished. So please, head on over to out TpT store, and check out our Ice Cream Math Pack. We'd love to hear you thoughts and ideas! Here's a little preview of what you'll find.


Leave us a comment about your favorite kind of ice cream, and we'll pick a winner on Sunday to get our Ice Cream Math Pack for free!

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Our new Calendar Set! (and give away)

As our year comes to an end we of course are already looking ahead to next year. We are always looking for new ideas for our classrooms, and we both thought we'd like to spice up our calendar areas. You all know how frustrating it is to lose calendar pieces, or wear out something, only to have to buy an entirely new set! So, we thought we'd create our own calendar cards. And since we've come to love blogging so much, we want to share it with all of you. Our new Pocket Chart Calendar Set includes:

Month Headers
Calendar Numbers
Holiday Cards
Birthday Card
Special Event Cards
Weather
Seasons
Days of the Week
Months of the Year
Place Value Cards
Weather Graphs
Birthday Graph
Lost Teeth Graph

Here's a little sneak peak of what you will see in our Calendar Set:

Our Calendar Set fits with the standard calendar pocket chart and schedule pocket chart. Check it out!


And as a treat for our followers and all of you fabulous teachers, we are having a year end sale at our TpT store through next weekend! Our whole store is 20% off! So stop by and get your calendar for next year, and check out all of our other fun stuff! Our sale will end Sunday June 11th, as wee officially begin our summer break!

We know all of our friends in blogger land are super busy, but we'd also like to give one of you our calendar set for free! Just leave us a comment about your favorite calendar activity, and we will pick a random winner this Saturday night. Good luck! Only 1 week left!!!


POCKET CHART CALENDAR CARDS

On a side note, we survived the zoo today, with only a few sprinkles!
Active animals + 5000 kids = an awfully fun zoo day! Man was it packed! :)

Motivational Monday Vol. 8

Happy Monday! Sorry it's so late tonight, but I had to watch Dancing With the Stars! I'm still trying to figure out how to become a star, just so I can go on that show! Who do you think is going to win? I'm up in the air still...

So, we've just finished another game unit for our TPT store. We don't know about ya'll but we are loving games lately to really keep the kiddos reviewing what we've learned this year. And who can't get enough ways to practice addition and subtraction? This Summer Fun Activity Pack includes 4 game boards that you can use interchangeably with any of our activity cards. Cards focus on addition, subtraction, first and second grade sight word, and include phrase cards as well. We use these both for fluency practice, and for sentence builders. And as usual, we've included activity card masters for you to create your own. This is a great activity pack for centers, or to send home for summer practice. Here's a preview of what you'll get:

So head on over to our teachers pay teachers store and check it out!

To begin my summer vacation I'm taking my own babies to spend three weeks at my parents house. If you are the first person to guess which state they live in, you'll get your own free copy of our Summer Fun Activity Pack. Good luck!

It's a Zoo Day!

Anyone going to the zoo anytime soon? We are going in the next few weeks, and let me tell ya, the kiddos are EXCITED! We don't have too much time left to do an entire zoo unit, so instead we came up with some fun zoo-themed math and literacy games. "It's a Zoo Day!" has great activities to reinforce addition and subtraction, fractions, place value, and even first grade sight words. These are great to use by themselves, or to compliment any zoo or animal unit. Please head on over to our Teachers Pay Teachers store and check it out! Here's a sneak peak...




Here's a freebie to go along with these games, or to use on your own! Click on the picture for your own copy.


The first one to comment with the correct date of our zoo field trip gets a free copy! Hope you all had a great weekend! Click on the picture below to see our Zoo Day packet!



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Memory Book Give Away Update

We are so sorry for the inconvenience of blogger being down! What a bummer! So, if you would like to enter the give away for our Memory Book, just comment again. When Blogger was down, it removed all of our comments. :( So, we will extend the give away until Saturday night, so comment quickly! And don't forget, if you just HAVE to have this book, it is on sale 20% off through Sunday at our TPT store.

Be watching tonight for a freebie to use in your calendar area!

TGIF!

First Grade Memory Book Give Away

Hello blogger friends! Anyone else getting excited (and nervous at the same time) about our school year coming to an end? We have less than a month, and yet so much to do! But guess what.... we've got the best activity to help you finish up the year!

Have you been looking for a memory book to help your students commemorate first grade? Then we’ve got the book for you! This is a 12 page first grade memory book that we’ve created to be both kid and teacher friendly. We’ve included both a color version, and a black and white version so that your students are able to personalize this just for them. Many pages include a place to add a wallet size picture (class, teacher, all about me) or space to draw their own. Our book included the following pages:

Title

Class

Teacher

All About Me

Family

Favorite things

After School Activity

Favorite Book

When I grow up

First grade memories

Friends

Autographs

At the end of our download you will find a few pages with blank dates so you can use our book over and over again. Please let us know if you need something changed, or have an idea. We want to make sure this works for you!

To make this even better, we are having a sale! Our First Grade Memory Book will be on sale 20% off through the weekend, so make sure to get yours soon!

Oh, and did we mention that we will give a copy away as well? (We love this book so much, that we want EVERYONE to have it!) So, enter our give away and we will draw a name Friday afternoon! Here's how to enter:

1. Follow our blog, and leave a comment

2. Follow our tpt store, and leave a comment

3. Blog about us, and leave 2 comments!

Here's a preview of our First Grade Memory Book!









So, if you like what you see and want to see more, then head on over to our TPT store and check it out!

Doubles and Race Car Games Giveaway

Hi all! We have had so much fun this week introducing different careers to our first graders. This week is Career Week at our school and today the teachers participated in "If I wasn't a teacher I would be..." We all dressed up as someone from another field other than teaching and boy was it fun! When our students arrived at school they were given forms that contained teacher names. Throughout the day they needed to write down each teacher's "other career" next to their name. Our kids had so much fun and had an opportunity to learn about several careers. Can you guess what we dressed up as? One of us was a nurse and the other a hair stylist :)

Along with several career activities this week, our first graders have been practicing their doubles addition facts. We taught our first graders a doubles song that they REALLY enjoy singing. In fact, they like it so much that we have typed up the lyrics so they can sing it at home. The link to the video/song can be found HERE and HERE is a copy of the lyrics.

To celebrate our doubles practice we are having a giveaway for our newest additions to our TpT store. Our doubles activity is a 10 page package that contains doubles facts 1+1 through 12+12, a recording sheet, and 8 doubles word problems. Our race car math games package contains three games geared at addition, subtraction, fact families and place value. Both of these items are great for centers, group and buddy work, or to play as a whole class. Both sets include blank card masters for you to make your own cards if needed. There are 5 ways to enter our giveaway:

1. Follow our blog

2. Blog about First Grade Fanatics and attach the link

3. Follow our Teacher Pay Teachers store

4. Blog about the give away and attach the link

5. Grab our button and add us to your blog roll

We will draw a winner Sunday at 7:00 PST. Good luck! If you can't wait, you can purchase our doubles activity for ONLY $2 and our race car math games for ONLY $4 at our TpT store! Click HERE to purchase the doubles activity and HERE to purchase the race car math game pack.

And the winner is....

Sorry we're a little bit late. Tonight we had t-ball, dinner, bath, story, bed... we got a bit behind. Thanks to all who entered our Creepy Crawlers give away. The winner is...

We will get your prize to you shortly Mrs. Saoud!

If you didn't win and would like to purchase our unit, visit our TPT store or click HERE!

Keep watching, we'll be sharing some more fun games very soon...

Creepy Crawler Unit Give Away!

We are so excited to share our new Creepy Crawler unit with you! We've been working hard on it, and hope that you love it as much as we do. It is 93 pages filled with literature connections, writing, word work, math, science, art and some really great activities to do with your kiddos. We really try to make our units user friendly as well. Whenever possible, everything is lined up so you can cut out with a paper cutter if you choose, and everything comes with masters and blank pages for you to make it work for your needs. We know how valuable your time is, so we want to make it as easy to use as possible. So please visit our TPT store, and check it out!

Here's a little preview of what you will find in our unit!

And of course, we'd like to give a lucky blogger friend the chance to win our unit for free! There are four ways to enter, so leave a comment and link for each that you do.

1. Follow our blog

2. Blog about First Grade Fanatics

3. Follow our Teacher Pay Teachers store

4. Blog about the give away

So, that's four chances to win!

We will draw a winner Wednesday at 7:00 PST. Good luck! And don't forget, if you can't wait to get started, you can purchase our unit at our TPT store! Need a fun creepy crawler game? Don't forget to check out Going Buggy at TPT as well! Good luck!

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Bug unit preview...

We are working on our Bug unit for TPT right now, and hope to have it finished and up by this weekend. Be watching for a giveaway... But for now, we've uploaded a fun game, Going Buggy. If you liked Weather Walk, then you will love this! The task cards can be used in either game, and this game includes even more! It's great for review, or for centers. Please stop by and check it out! Click the bee, and it will send you right there!


Want your game for free? Leave a comment tonight telling us how you would use this game, and we will draw 1 lucky winner at 10:00 pst. Good luck!

Earth Day Unit Give Away!

We have jumped on the bandwagon, and have finished our first unit for Teachers Pay Teachers. It is 52 pages of literacy, math and even a bit of science fun based on Earth day! Earth Day is coming up on April 22nd, and since our school is a "green school," this is an important day for us. We do some school wide cleanup projects, as well as cleaning, and recycling in our own rooms. This packet is filled with activities for you to use, including adjectives, nouns and verbs, ABC order, addition and subtraction, place value, literacy connections, and some great group activities. You can get all of this for only $5.00! But..... we'd also like to give one away! So, here are three ways you can enter to win our Earth Day Unit Giveaway:

1. Follow us on our blog, and leave a comment on this post.

2. Follow us on TPT, and leave a comment on this post.

3. Blog about this giveaway, and leave us the link in a comment on this post.

Three ways to win! But you better hurry, we will pick a random winner on Wednesday April 6th, at 4:00 PST. Good luck! We hope you enjoy our unit!

Can't wait until then to get started? Click below to purchase or see our unit at TPT.

Have a great week!

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Weather Walk Give Away!

Have you ever wanted or needed a game that practices skills of many subjects? Than we've got the game for you! This is a weather themed game that works on skills in both math and reading. Task cards include subtraction, addition, place value, telling time, sight words, sound blends, opposites, and rhyming words. And guess what else! We've also included card masters for you to create your own task cards, so that you can make this game work for you! What more could you ask for? Now, how do you get this wonderful game? It must cost money, right? Nope! It's FREE! (And what teacher doesn't like free?) :) All you have to do is become one of the next 30 followers, and it's yours! Leave us a comment with your email, and we'll send you back Weather Walk. Already follow us? Then you get your copy too. Just blog about us and it's yours! Here's a little peak of the 13-pages you'll receive:

We can't wait to hear from you! We'd also love to hear how you used this game and made it yours!